Items voted on by the Baxter County Quorum Court were routine business items, but much of the nearly 40-minute session was spent discussing last month’s storms. Matt Sharp has the details.
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With Justice Ty Chapman absent, the court heard a presentation from Baxter County Office of Emergency Management Director David Stults about the EF3 tornado that hit on May 26. It was the first major tornado that hit Baxter County since an EF2 storm tore through Gassville on Feb. 5, 2008. Stults says 911 dispatch received a total of 365 calls on that early morning, and a total of 350 distribution power poles were destroyed from the storms. He also reported Entergy Arkansas had nearly 27,000 outages throughout northern Arkansas, and North Arkansas Electric Cooperative had approximately 25,000 members without power. In addition, emergency officials recently had a flyover in which they observed 47 properties in Baxter County, and 21 were destroyed.
Several area firefighters and emergency personnel were in attendance for Tuesday’s meeting, and many were from outside the county. Stults recognized them by having them stand up to applause from the remainder of the audience. Izard County Office of Emergency Management Director Gary Dickerson spoke at the end of the meeting and praised Stults’ efforts since the tornado.
Most of the items voted on by the court were appropriation ordinances that were approved unanimously. The first appropriated over $15,700 in fees and reimbursements to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office budget. They also appropriated over $8,500 from the road and bridge fund to the road and bridge department budget. In addition, over $28,200 were appropriated to the Adult Drug Court from the Opiod Settlement Grant Fund. The final ordinance reappropriated funds from last year’s budget for the budget cleanup mandated by the state of Arkansas.
The last item voted on by the court was an appointment resolution. Randy Worlow was unanimously reappointed to the Baxter County Equalization Board for a three-year term expiring in June 2027.
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